{"product_id":"piano-music-24","title":"PIANO MUSIC","description":"\u003cb\u003eExcellent playing - gloriously committed, fresh, confident and perceptive. This deserves a wider circulation.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the major Romantic composers in nineteenth century France. Regarded as a pioneer in his early years after the Great War and then in his eighties Saint-Saëns was still writing in his familiar late-Romantic style and his music had become regarded as anachronistic. Throughout his long life of eighty-six years Saint-Saëns wrote in most genres, including symphonies, concertante works, sacred and secular choral music, a ballet  \u003ci\u003eJavotte\u003c\/i\u003e and incidental music, chamber music, numerous songs and pieces for piano and organ, and numerous arrangements. Saint-Saëns much cherished his thirteen operas all written during the period 1872-1911. Despite being prolific the fame of Saint-Saëns rests largely on just a small number of works most notably: the Symphony No. 3  \u003ci\u003eOrgan\u003c\/i\u003e; the Symphonic Poem:  \u003ci\u003eDanse macabre\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003e Softly awakes my heart\u003c\/i\u003e and the  \u003ci\u003eBacchanale\u003c\/i\u003e from the opera  \u003ci\u003eSamson and Delilah\u003c\/i\u003e; the  \u003ci\u003eIntroduction and Rondo capriccioso\u003c\/i\u003e and  \u003ci\u003eHavanaise\u003c\/i\u003e for violin and orchestra, and  \u003ci\u003eThe Swan \u003c\/i\u003efrom  \u003ci\u003eThe Carnival of the Animals\u003c\/i\u003e. Although of high quality the majority of his works are hardly known. A concert pianist himself a substantial number of Saint-Saëns’s rarely heard solo piano scores are a case in point. Even in his home country his piano scores soon became lost among the piano works of his European predecessors Liszt and Chopin and the impressionism of his successors Debussy, Ravel and Satie. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  This MDG release serves as a excellent showcase for the solo piano scores. Presented here are three collections of six piano works. For some reason they are not placed in chronological order. The first is the  \u003ci\u003eAlbum pour Piano\u003c\/i\u003e, op. 72. These are pieces tailored for virtuoso display in the fashionable Parisian salons and concert halls. The  \u003ci\u003eAlbum\u003c\/i\u003e opens with an urgent  \u003ci\u003ePrélude \u003c\/i\u003ewith passages of calm; sounding somewhat Lisztian. A peaceful work tinged with melancholy the  \u003ci\u003eCarillon \u003c\/i\u003eadopts a more serious quality at its centre. \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eThe rapid and darting  \u003ci\u003eToccata \u003c\/i\u003ehas considerable appeal and the  \u003ci\u003eValse \u003c\/i\u003eis another attractive piece that develops a fervent core. \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eRocking and undemanding, the  \u003ci\u003eChanson Napolitaine \u003c\/i\u003eevokes the motion of the gondola. \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eThe concluding  \u003ci\u003eFinal\u003c\/i\u003e is a dazzling and exuberant showpiece. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  The next two collections comprise  \u003ci\u003eÉtudes \u003c\/i\u003e( \u003ci\u003eStudies\u003c\/i\u003e). These are spacious, polished and appealing in style and at times strike the classical approach of Mendelssohn. The  \u003ci\u003eSix Études pour le Piano\u003c\/i\u003e, op. 52 commence with an upbeat and extrovert  \u003ci\u003ePrélude\u003c\/i\u003e. Titled  \u003ci\u003ePour l'independance des doigts \u003c\/i\u003ethis is melodic and encompasses a sighing and romantic mood. A brisk and determined  \u003ci\u003ePrélude and Fugue in F minor \u003c\/i\u003eis followed by the tricky  \u003ci\u003eEtude de rythme \u003c\/i\u003eso movingly gentle and delicate with an almost pleading quality. The  \u003ci\u003ePrélude and Fugue in A major \u003c\/i\u003eis very fine being both melodic and dramatic, The set culminates in the popular  \u003ci\u003eEn forme de Valse\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003esweeping and scatty. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  The closing set is the  \u003ci\u003eSix Études pour le Piano\u003c\/i\u003e, op. 111. Opening the set is the short  \u003ci\u003eTierces majeures et mineures\u003c\/i\u003e which is big-boned and extrovert. Reminding me on occasions of Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous  \u003ci\u003eFlight of the Bumblebee\u003c\/i\u003e is the rapid  \u003ci\u003eTraits chromatiques\u003c\/i\u003e followed by the  \u003ci\u003ePrélude et Fugue\u003c\/i\u003e notable for its broad and dramatic gestures. Saint-Saëns was a great lover of the sound of bells and wrote several bell-inspired scores. A repetitive piece  \u003ci\u003eLes Cloches de Las Palmas\u003c\/i\u003e contains prominent bell-like figures that could easily be ringing out a warning to townsfolk. The attractive, penultimate and scurrying  \u003ci\u003eTierces majeures chromatiques\u003c\/i\u003e is only brief. To crown this collection comes the dramatic and boisterous  \u003ci\u003eToccata d'après le cinquième concerto\u003c\/i\u003e a title that refers to the  \u003ci\u003efinale\u003c\/i\u003e of the  \u003ci\u003ePiano Concerto No. 5\u003c\/i\u003e, op. 103 known as ‘ \u003ci\u003eThe Egyptian\u003c\/i\u003e’ \u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Korean pianist Mi-Joo Lee provides excellent playing with a beautiful tone drawn from her Steinway concert grand (model D). There were only a couple of minor examples of poor technicality otherwise the soloist was gloriously committed, fresh, confident and perceptive. Virtually everything that Saint-Saëns wrote is appealing and of high quality whilst not making any claims for these splendid and interesting scores to be classed as masterworks. They deserve a wider circulation. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  -- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MDG","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":52045923746072,"sku":"760623059020","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/144780.jpg?v=1778459015","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/piano-music-24","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}